Vance impresses Trump by interjecting himself into Zelensky's conversation - WSJ

U.S. President Donald Trump was shocked that Vice President J.D. Vance interrupted the conversation during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The incident in the Oval Office cemented Vance's status as an attack dog in the Trump administration.

This was reported by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The publication does not disclose the mood of Trump's "impressions", but indicates that since Friday he has told White House staff several times that his former Vice President Michael Pence would never have done this.

Vance sat mostly silent for 22 minutes while President Trump and Zelensky answered questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

By the time a journalist asked if Trump supported Vladimir Putin, "Vance was already fed up," the article says.

Vance's intervention that followed provoked a tense public clash with Zelensky.

A day after the Oval Office argument was televised across the country, Trump's conservative allies are praising Vance, while Democrats accuse him of leading the way to peace.

"The incident cemented Vance's status in the Trump administration as an attack dog and fierce defender of the US president. Since Trump took office nearly six weeks ago, Vance has sparred on social media with progressives, Democrats and at least once with a fellow conservative, and made international headlines for his criticism of the leadership in Europe during his first trip abroad," the article says.

The publication also points out that Vance is at the forefront of an increasingly influential wing of the Republican Party that is skeptical of foreign aid.

People close to Vance say he sees his role as a fixer. Some of his allies compare him to a Swiss Army knife that "can solve a lot of problems for the president."

But Vance faces significant political risks as he builds his future, which could potentially include his own presidential race.

Among them: whether he can remain in the good graces of Trump, who sometimes lashes out at close advisers and who has publicly turned his back on his previous vice president, Mike Pence.

Vance is currently on good terms with Trump. The former Ohio senator and author of the best-selling autobiography Hillbilly Elegy also has deep ties to influential conservative figures, including the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.

Democrats and some diplomats sharply criticized Vance and Trump for their exchange in the Oval Office, accusing the vice president of setting up an ambush for Zelensky and claiming a pre-planned attempt to sabotage the meeting.

"I thought it was just, you know, like JD Vance said: "Hey, look what I can do, Dad!" And it doesn't help the situation. These negotiations should have been done behind closed doors," said Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona.

Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who worked under the Obama administration, said that "it is inappropriate for the vice president to interrupt the head of state and demand that he thank him."

Some Republicans also expressed disappointment with the way Trump and Vance conducted the meeting.

Representative Mike Lawler of New York, a Republican in a competitive district, said it was "extremely shortsighted to have this kind of exchange in front of the American and international press while you're working on a deal."

Vance's advisers denied that the clash in the Oval Office was part of a pre-planned strategy. Trump and Vance did not plan for the meeting to escalate into a conflict in front of journalists, administration officials said.

The East Room of the White House was set up with the expectation that Trump and Zelensky would hold a televised press conference to celebrate the signing of the minerals agreement aimed at moving toward peace with Russia.

Vance, according to his advisers, spoke at the meeting because he did not like the question asked of Trump about the alliance with Putin and wanted to support the president.

He jumped in to praise Trump for engaging in diplomacy and to criticize former President Joe Biden's "tough" remarks about Putin that had not led to progress toward peace.

Tensions rose when Zelensky listed all the times Putin had failed to keep his word. Vance, a longtime critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine, "scolded the Ukrainian president for not showing gratitude to Trump," the newspaper writes.

According to White House officials, even before Vance's intervention, Trump and Vance had become increasingly irritated with Zelensky's rejection of some of the president's statements and focus on the need for a broader peace deal rather than the mining agreement he was supposed to sign.

"I was very proud of Jay DeVance for standing up for our country," said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).

Senator Mike Lee (Republican, Utah) called Vance GOAT, which is an acronym for "the greatest of all time."

On Friday night and again on Saturday afternoon, the White House issued a long list of public praise for Trump and Vance from cabinet members and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

A Marine veteran and U.S. Senator from Ohio, Vance, 40, represents a new, young voice in the Republican Party and is seen as a clear successor to Trump.

But Trump "made a splash" when he answered negatively in a February interview with Fox News when asked if he saw Vance as his successor. "No, but he's very capable," he said, adding that there are many "very capable people."

Vance and his family are skiing this weekend at the Sugarbush resort in Vermont, a White House official said. He is the first vice president in decades to have young children living at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Protesters criticized Vance when he arrived in Vermont. "Support Ukraine, not Putin," one of the posters read.

As OBOZ.UA reported, the popular US show Saturday Night parodied Trump and Vance at a meeting with Zelensky. The comedians compared the US Vice President to a "kitten" and mocked his level of awareness of events in Ukraine.

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